recording levels for us on camera. as article 50 was being triggered on the 29th, i would have thought that much more credence would have been given to the march taking place. the evening news put the number attending at about 20,000. i consider there were a great deal more than this. as leaving the eu is such a momentous decision for this country, and for some of us a disaster, we should have had a lot more coverage than we actually got. we deserve better. it was disappointing them to find an organisation of the bbc's reputation as supposedly an impartial reporting body neglected to give appropriate coverage to this huge event. i would like to know why the bbc did not deem it sufficiently newsworthy. thank you. well, we put those points to bbc news at a spokesperson told us: that was the start of a week of

television news which has been dominated by wednesday's triggering by the government of article 50, kickstarting officially the process of leaving the eu. the subject was extensively covered on bbc, with plenty of input from members of the public, giving their views on the uk's decision to depart and what they expected from the next two yea rs of they expected from the next two years of talks. it was all too much for david, who wrote: and keith gregory had this to say:

not much chance of the bbc or any of the media leaving it alone, certainly not on wednesday, when, in a special programme on bbc one, andrew neil interview the prime minister, followed by a number of other party leaders. the presenter came infor other party leaders. the presenter came in for some praise about the way he conducted that interview, including this telephone message. thank goodness for andrew neil, among the very few on the bbc who keep to strictly accurate quotations. in general there is far too much sloppiness and buyers, but

bravo andrew neil today. —— and buyers. that allegation of buyers in relation to brexit is the one we heard before lastjune's referendum act in the past fortnight politicians have joined in act in the past fortnight politicians havejoined in argument, with several mps writing to newspapers last week that the bbc had fallen far short of its obligation to provide balanced coverage and had skewed good economic news since the referendum. 0n economic news since the referendum. on thursday, a rival group of politicians wrote another letter, calling on the corporation to resist attem pts calling on the corporation to resist attempts at political interference and report fearlessly and impartially on the brexit negotiations. that divided reaction is also evident amongst newswatch viewers, although most people we hear from viewers, although most people we hearfrom side with viewers, although most people we hear from side with this anonymous caller. might i suggest thatjust for once the bbc could be a little more up beat about our leaving the european union? it's been so depressing having to listen to all your presenters and knows how many

political editors you have talking about brexit, always, always in a negative fashion! please, try and be a little more positive. thank you. whether brexit is a cause for celebration and a great opportunity for the uk to take back control, or a p rocess for the uk to take back control, or a process which has already had negative consequences and faces substantial difficulties in the yea rs substantial difficulties in the years ahead, depends of course on your point of view. but others agree that the bbc has been emphasising the latter at the cost of the a—mar. here is danny gothard: and roland newsome put it like this:

well, let's take a step back and examine the bbc‘s approach to reporting on our forthcoming departure from the eu with the corporation's chief political adviser. strong feelings on all sides. is there something different about rex it which makes the bbc‘s commitment to impartiality quite a new challenge? —— rex app. commitment to impartiality quite a new challenge? -- rex app. whenever you have a referendum in particular opinion becomes very polarised and views become very entrenched and it is very difficult often to appreciate or even value impartiality in those circumstances. that vote is now done, over. leave

have one and ourjob now is to really scrutinise carefully the execution of brexit, if you like. how the government carries out brexit, how it carries out the negotiations, to scrutinise notjust the government but other politicians. that's why andrew neil did all these interviews with partymen is across the uk, and also scrutinise european union officials and politicians in europe. so our job now is much more intricate and complicated than a simple mathematical balance between people who were remain or leave, so that journalistic challenge is really very strong. at the audience trust the bbc to do with more than anyone else. we do get a lot of complaints, especially from pro brexit viewers, who feel the bbc is rerunning the referendum by always airing what might go wrong or what not work. how do you want about? there will be parts of the community who will have concerns about it and we should report that. i don't think everytime

we find someone who is optimistic or pessimistic we should suddenly have to find the opposite view everytime. we are no longer in that situation ofa we are no longer in that situation of a mathematical balance. what we have to do is report it properly, so that the audience understands what the challenges are. that must be a broad range. it mustn'tjust be the people who are worried, it must be also the people who think there are opportunities. we heard a reference to the march last week, but the bbc goes to great lengths. can you give us an goes to great lengths. can you give us an insight as to how you do that and mesha impartiality? we have a lot of obligation on programmes to do that and part of what i do is to help them do that. but across time it may not be on individual programme, it may be a series of programmes, people have to think about making sure they get the range of views and that will be for —— different for different programmes. how do you do that? it is important

we don't pretend you get impartiality by the stop watch all the abacus or a calculator. you don't measure impartiality by maths. you get impartiality by really good judgement and that's what our editors are trying to do all the time. people wonder how the bbc should be reporting a story like the lloyds ba n k should be reporting a story like the lloyds bank moving jobs to brussels. to some viewers, it is an example of emphasising the negative, when that's only one event in a big often very quickly changing picture.|j think you have to make judgements on individual stories and we have to decide what level of prominent —— prominence they should get. editors makejudgements prominence they should get. editors make judgements about those things. it is important that when you hear those stories you also hear others that might reflect something from a different perspective. after all, this is going on for a long time. 0ver this is going on for a long time. over the next couple of years of negotiations there will be many exa m ples of negotiations there will be many examples of this and it is quite right that editors should be challenged to think about the wide range of views, notjust

challenged to think about the wide range of views, not just those stories that you've talked about today. on the other hand, many viewers have got in touch with us to say any criticism, any critics of brexit, are labelled remainers macro and they feel the bbc is cow would buy the political criticism, notably from mps like the director—general. i knew? one mp actually said this week that relying on mps to be arbiters of impartiality was a bit like asking sir alex ferguson to referee a home match at old trafford. you have to remember where criticism is coming from. it is important the bbc listens and axe on in it is also important we are bussed in defending the bbc‘s editorial decisions and its journalism when we get political pressure. sometimes there will be genuine issues, sometimes there will be political pressure and it is very important that the bbc withstand that. thank you very much. thank you for all of your

comments this week. if you want to share your opinion on bbc news, call us on 0370 010 6676. 0r e—mail us at newswatch@bbc. co. uk. you can find us on twitter, and do have a look at our website for previous discussions. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. this past week has seen some really varied weather across the uk, but this weekend we'll even out the differences. we're all pretty much in the same boat for saturday, in that there will be a fair amount of showers around, some of those quite heavy. quite a chilly night to come on saturday night. then the vast majority will have a fine and dry sunday, with some sunny spells around.

this is what the start of saturday looks like for early risers. looks pretty wet across north—west england. it will take much of the morning before that begins to ease. already through western parts of the uk the showers are getting going, so out and about through parts of south—west england. this is the picture at 9am in wales. increasingly so into parts of the midlands as well, dotted about are some of these showers. more to come. much of eastern england will have a fine morning. the rain, more persistent compared with elsewhere in the uk to begin with, in north—west england. standing water and showers around in northern ireland, dry to begin within in eastern scotland. it will take much of the morning before this rain in north—west england eases to showers, going into the afternoon. look at the showers breaking out elsewhere. some of them will be heavy. the risk of hail and thunder, fairly slow—moving too. some bright and sunny spells in between.

it looks like an improvement gradually through the afternoon in northern ireland, western parts of scotland, western coastal fringes of england and wales. in the sunny spells, at 13—16, not feeling too bad. saturday evening, showers should fade away and sunday morning looks mainly dry. a ridge of high pressure building in for the second part of the weekend. it means quite a chilly start on sunday morning, compared with recent mornings. a touch of frost in parts of scotland and northern ireland possible and a frost on the ground in the northern half of the uk. but we're rewarded on sunday with some cloud around, but some good sunny spells too and the very vast majority will have a dry day, with light winds. in that sunshine, feeling quite pleasant. again, those temperatures mostly at around 11—15. just a few spots getting warmer than that going into sunday afternoon. boat races on sunday — looking fine and quite calm too. the weather shouldn't be causing too many dramas. enjoy the action. as we go into the start of next week, there are some weather fronts to come through and here they come.

but once they push their way through, they will be weakening as they head further south later on monday and into tuesday, once they're gone high—pressure builds back in across the uk. so wednesday onwards, much of next week is looking dry and there will be some sunny spells coming through this cloud. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's lebo diseko. our top stories: violent protests in paraguay as senators vote in secret to allow the president to stand for a second term. venezuela's president maduro under pressure, a top government official condemns a court ruling side—lining congress. the white house says donald trump is not worried about possible revelations on russia from former adviser, michael flynn. and we have a special report from china, as the country brings to an end centuries of ivory trading.